>>131 (I really liked that picture, too! So this was fun to spend all day playing with)) The Sniper wasn't sure whether to be angry or worried. There was a cease-fire-- during which the teams were confined to the base anyway-- and yet not once during the three days they'd had so far, the perfect opportunity, with the Sniper's van being 'on base' without being on base-- had the Spy come to see him. Finally, he decided he'd figure out how he felt about the spook after he got the chance to talk to him. And that meant breaking into the BLU base. Something he was ready to do, as soon as the sun went down. He found a ladder, and his Spy's window. When he got there, he found about five identically-dressed men waiting for him. "Well, well, well..." One of them sneered, as two others pulled him into the room. He could see his own Spy-- recognized the eyes, and saw the quick look of horror flash across his face, before he composed himself. "What have we here?" Another spy crowded in. Before he knew what was happening, he was being shoved into a chair, and ropes were brought out. It was his Spy doing the tying, something he was grateful for, since the ropes could have been a lot tighter. "Who sent you?" One of them barked. Another scrambled to cover a map, a third stuffed papers haphazardly into different folders, and they all hissed at each other in french, before his Spy blindfolded him. "What do you want?" "Don't exactly have a name, rank, and serial number to give you, sorry." "Idiot." His Spy hissed, but he could hear the worry. "Come now, we know why you are here. Your team knew about this meeting, they sent you--" "Why send their sniper?" "Who knows why those imbeciles do anything. If their spies are meeting at a different base, they don't have one to send against us..." There were more whispers, after that, more french, but when the question of what to do with him came up, the Sniper heard it plain as day. "I doubt he knows enough to make getting him to talk worth the trouble." His Spy yawned. "Just leave him, we can conduct the rest of the meeting en francais, he will be none the wiser. I can take care of him when we are done here." "Even if he doesn't speak it, he could remember enough to parrot back to his spy." "Maybe we should piss on him." "NO-- I mean-- Don't work out your frustrations with your own enemy sniper by flinging urine around MY room. This one is not so filthy as that, anyway." "Maybe we should--" There was more french after that, some suggestions sounded violent, others sexual, but in the end, his Spy convinced the others to just watch him, begging off to make a call. A call? The Sniper shifted nervously in his chair. How long was that going to take? And how was that supposed to help him? ---/-/--- The Spy had done everything he could, to preserve his lover's dignity, and to reassure him where he could, with a few stray touches as he bound and blindfolded him. And now... Now he had to find a way to get him out. He knew what that way was, and he also knew for it to work, he wouldn't be able to do anything to help. "What do you want?" His opposite number met him outside the RED base, clearly suspicious. "Your Sniper got himself lost inside our base. My colleagues are rather keen on doing him some mischief. I thought the gentlemanly thing to do would be to inform you." "Oh?" He nodded. "Wear my face. Go in. Betray no surprise over anything you see, and do not let anyone know that you are not who you appear to be. Then get your friend and go home. If you can do that, you will be able to call on me for any favour you find yourself needing--" "Oh, I know what I want from you." The RED Spy snorted, grabbing the BLU's tie. "And you know, as well." "They're yours." He smiled. "Why would you owe me, for this?" The BLU Spy blanched. "I want that filthy bushman out of my room. Before things get ugly. It is worth the negatives of your photographs, to have him removed." He laughed. "Keep them, if you want to. They are nothing compared to the knowledge that you are fucking the enemy himself!" "I didn't--" "Or he is fucking you. And you want me to rescue him. Don't play games with me, petit, you'll never win." "That's funny, I have photographic evidence to the contrary." The RED Spy shoved him back, glaring. "Do you want my help or not?" "I do. The negatives are yours. Can you do it?" "Of course I can. I'm the best." The BLU Spy grumbled, watching him go, seeing himself walking into the base. He went to the Sniper's van, couldn't show up as an extra spy without blowing the game. He still worried, but at least he worried in a place where everything reminded him of his lover. ---/-/--- He knew right away that it wasn't his Spy coming back. The voice was close, almost dead on, but the tread of the feet was all wrong. The conversation continued in french, he could hear drinks being poured, someone told a joke, and all the while, the Sniper was growing more and more nervous. After a while, there was a heavy thud, then three more, and his ropes were being untied. His teammate was standing in front of him when he took his blindfold off. "Hm. Those drinks must have been pretty strong." The RED Spy chortled. "Remind your playmate he owes me." He reached out, one knuckle touching the Sniper's chin lightly, and he laughed again, shaking his head, disguising again before ambling out. "By the way, he has fourteen hours, before they start asking some questions about what they were doing waking up on the carpet." The Sniper let out a sigh. Maybe this made things a little more complicated, but it was a relief not to be tied up at the mercy of a group of spies with their own agendas. He shimmied back down the ladder, tossing it off to the side and hurrying back to his camper, where his own Spy was there to greet him with a hard hug and a series of desperate kisses.